Worrying global trends in suicide are reported in a new Lancet Series of papers . The Lancet Series reviews a range of topics including self-harm and suicide in adolescents, suicide in young men and the effects of restricting the means of suicide, as well as including original research analysing suicide rates in India, where suicide claims twice as many lives per year as HIV-AIDS.
“Suicide is an act that is contrary to what is perhaps the strongest of human instincts-survival.”
In this Series, three reviews help us to better understand the incomprehensible act of suicide and further discuss strategies to reduce the risk of self-destructive behaviour. In two of the Series papers, Keith Hawton and colleagues and Alexandra Pitman and colleagues review the current state of knowledge for self-harm and suicide in adolescents and young men, respectively. A third paper by Paul SF Yip and colleagues reviews prevention of suicide by limiting of access to highly lethal methods of suicide.
In a Comment, E Michael Lewiecki and Sara A Miller summise: “the complexity of risk factors for suicide suggests that many approaches to suicide prevention should be considered and customised to accommodate local circumstances.”
WHO estimates that the annual global suicide rate is about 16 per 100,000 individuals, corresponding to around 900,000 individuals and representing a 45% increase in the last 45 years
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